The present invention relates generally to computer readout devices, and more particularly, to tactile displays enabling users to read out information appearing on a computer screen.
Presently-available Braille readers permit visually-impaired persons to read text appearing on a computer screen by converting the ASCII code for each text character into a Braille character. A Braille reader may incorporate 40 or 80 xe2x80x9ccellsxe2x80x9d each including pins movable up or down for forming the Braille characters. In this fashion, the computer user is provided with tactile feedback, via Braille, representative of text lines on the screen.
In accordance with one specific, exemplary embodiment of the invention, there is provided a tactile display for reading out information corresponding to at least a portion of an image appearing on a computer screen comprising a 2-dimensional array of pixels. The tactile display comprises a plurality of tactile output elements arranged in a 2-dimensional array. Each of the plurality of output elements corresponds to at least one pixel of the computer screen and is movable, in response to an input representative of a value of a property of the at least one pixel, to a predetermined one of a plurality of discrete, tactilely-recognizable positions. The positions of the plurality of tactile output elements provide a tactilely-recognizable pattern representative of said information.
Pursuant to another specific, exemplary embodiment of the invention, there is provided a tactile display comprising a plurality of tactile output elements. Each of the elements corresponds to at least one pixel of a computer screen image and is movable to one of a plurality of tactilely-recognizable positions, each position being representative of an n-bit gray scale value of said at least one pixel. The positions of the plurality of tactile output elements provide tactilely-recognizable information relating to the computer screen image.